Betsy Ross in the History Wars of the Roaring Twenties, 1919–1932

Abstract

This chapter opens by using Betsy Ross as a lens to explore the unintended domestic consequences of American participation in World War I during the 1920s. Fueled by wartime patriotism, conservative activists launched campaigns against allegedly “treasonous” American history textbooks. The chapter examines Betsy Ross’s role in these textbook wars and the Patriotic Order Sons of America’s use of Flag Day commemorations at the Betsy Ross House to promote patriotic education, Americanization, and restrictions on immigration. It then explores the impact of the US Sesquicentennial celebrations on Betsy Ross’s memory, and how Commander Richard’s Byrd’s heroic 1927 flight across the Atlantic Ocean kept Betsy Ross in the public eye. It concludes by analyzing the 1930 publication of Betsy Ross: Quaker Rebel, in which author Edwin Satterthwaite Parry reimagined Betsy Ross as an eighteenth-century forerunner of the modern independent women of the 1920s.